The cause of the damage to the gas pipe and data cable is not yet clear, but the investigation reveals the same ships.
The gas pipeline and two data cable breaks revealed in the Baltic Sea last week have common features.
First, it was announced to the public that the Balticconnector pipe between Finland and Estonia was damaged, as was the data cable between the two countries. Later it was reported that there is also a fault in the data cable between Estonia and Sweden.
– In one investigation, we focus on several events, the Estonian General Prosecutor’s Office tells .
Estonia started a criminal investigation to find out the circumstances in which the data cable between Estonia and Finland was damaged. In the same process, Estonia also analyzes the breakage of the cable between Estonia and Sweden.
This has been reached because the circumstances of the damage events and the nature of the cases are so similar. This still does not mean that the investigation would reach the same conclusion for both, the Office of the Attorney General says.
Breaking the gas pipeline will be solved by Finland. However, the technical investigation has been done together.
Sevmorput and Newnew Polarbear are also of interest to the Estonian prosecutor
Estonia investigates the same ships as Finland in the investigation of cable damage in the Gulf of Finland.
In Finland, the Central Criminal Police said on Tuesday that in the investigation of the gas pipeline, attention has been paid to two named vessels. The ships are Newnew Polarbear and Sevmorput. According to the police, there were other ships in the area at the time of the damage.
The Estonian investigation names the same ships.
– We have identified two vessels, Newnew Polarbear and Sevmorput, which was also in the area. But we cannot say that these are to blame for the damage, says the Estonian Prosecutor’s Office.
According to Reuters Atomflot, the owner of Sevmorput, denies that the ship has anything to do with the problems in the Gulf of Finland. The owner of the Chinese Newnew Polarbear did not comment.
One of the lines of investigation in Estonia focuses on the fact that the damage occurred at approximately the same time.
Finland’s Central Criminal Police announced today that it has finished the technical investigation in the Gulf of Finland, so does Estonia. The technical investigation between Estonia and Sweden, on the other hand, is still ongoing.
On Thursday evening, according to Vessel Finder, Newnew Polarbear was in the Arctic Ocean north of Norway on its way to Tianjin, China. The ship sails under the flag of Hong Kong. In the same waters was the Sevmorput sailing under the Russian flag, on its way to Vostochny.